Mass Effect: Side Story Chapter 3
by Soldier167
Summary: See who the two sergeants meet, when traveling through the Batarian pirate ship.


**CHAPTER 3****  
****Relieving Reunion****  
**  
The two soldiers tried to make their way to the other corridor of which squad jaguar came in from, knowing that Will is most likely to be there. Arthus scanned the terminals inside a terminal room to acquire the schematics of the ship enabling the two to have a map of the ship on their omni-tools. They're missing just one part of schematic that Arthus kept insisting that it wasn't important since they have a way into the corridor, which involves them entering the engineering bay and crawling through the ducts to get there.

As the two neared the engineering bay, they heard gun shots and the beginning of a firefight. Nervous and anxious to find out what's going on in the engineering bay, the two quickly and stealthily made their way into the engineering bay via another dark and rusty corridor. When the two popped their heads up behind a crate to see what is happening, Derek saw a man in blue armor blazing away at Batarian pirates with is Predator pistol and burning them with shots coming from his omni-tool. He was truly giving them hell, "go shag yourselves, you ignorant bastards!" shouted the man.

By then the thick British accent and thick cracked voice instantly allowed Derek to know who the man was. It was lieutenant Walkers and he's still alive and well, giving the Batarian pirates hell like he had always done in all his past battles.

"Tough son of a bitch, huh." commented Arthus, "that your CO?" asked the turian. "As a matter o' fact, yes" replied Derek with renewed confidence in his voice and a smile on his face now that he removed his respirator breather mask from his helmet, "c'mon, let's help him out", shouted Derek. "Now that's a party I'm willing to join" commented Arthus joyfully, cocking his machine gun, getting it ready for a huge firefight that is to come.

The two screamed their way towards Walkers clearly motivated to tear the pirates a new one. Walkers glanced behind him thinking that danger was coming from behind before realizing help had arrived. The three scrambled to stay in cover while the pirate blazed away at them with all sorts of weapons this time.

"You son of a bitch!" yelled Walkers joyfully, relieved that one of his men is alive after all, "I thought you were dead you maniacal bastard!".

"Yea, well sir, with all due respect I needed a nap", said Derek jokingly, "oh, by the way this is Arthus, turian shocktroops sir".

"You found a turian sergeant... I want one too!" yelled Walkers struggling to stay in cover while trying his best to return fire.

"Sorry LT" responded Derek, "they're fresh outta turians, I bought the last one".

"Wait what am I to you two?" asked Arthus with a confused yet sarcastic tone in his voice. The two marines ignored his question as they were busy trying to return fire back to the Batarian pirates.

From the side of the crate, Walkers can see some fresh munitions behind the pirates, but only a small portion of it was showing. He'll need a crack shot and that he has.

"Sykes!" yelled the lieutenant under fire, "me and Arthus will cover you, get to the crate up front!".

Derek peeked from cover at the destination and nodded readying himself for a short storm to the metal crate in front of Walkers, while understanding what the implications of the orders were. The fire fight went on for two minutes until Derek heard the words being yelled by his CO.

"COVERING FIRE!" yelled Walkers simultaneously turning one hundred and eighty degrees and drawing his pistol on one of the targets. Arthus popped up from cover on the right of Walkers and laid down a deadly hail of bullets with his machine gun. His sustained base of fire caused the Batarians to duck for cover, others scrounged for cover but got hit by the rapid projectiles that were flying in.

Derek took a fast deep breath, lifted himself, ran his way up in front before diving his remaining few feet towards the metal crate. He then sat with is back to the metal crate, readying himself while checking if the two behind him was still giving the pirates hails of misery. Derek checked his omni-tool, took an extra deep breath and tag the holographic button that says "Adrenaline Initiation".

Derek's body went stiff with hyperactive fluids pumping across every spectrum of his body. His eyes wide open, his teeth clenched and his hands gripped his weapon ferociously to the point that it would be impossible to take it off his hands. His whole body began to shake as the adrenaline was pumped into him and the sound around him began to grow blur and he could see the veins in his eyes being pumped with the fluids in his body. Derek closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, time itself seemed to have stopped.

Derek turned towards the pirates and saw his mark. A fifth of a munitions crate with a huge explosive sign on it was what Derek must hit. He lifted his rifle, aimed carefully and pulled the trigger. He squeezed off a three round burst at the crate, another at a pirate with a machine gun and another at a sniper close by, afterwards he dove back into cover and halfway into cover, Derek heard his omni-tool beep and in a split second, all of time just shifted back to normal. Derek's hearing came back fully, the sound of guns blazing and his CO yelling all came back like a slowed down record shifting back to normal speeds. He no longer sees the veins in his eyes anymore, his vision has returned to how it was.

Derek also noticed another thing, is that the crate he fired upon exploded magnificently, blasting the pirates away from their positions. Then all fell silent, the firefight for now is over. What Derek experienced, felt like a few minutes to him but it was just a split second for the two behind him.

"Good shot Sykes!" complimented Walkers with a loud voice, still use to screaming under fire.

"Never knew you were a crack shot." complimented Arthus with a calm and confident voice.

Derek lifted himself on his feet and dusted himself from the dirt and ashes. "Why would you, you've only known me for ninety minutes." Derek clarified with a warm smile on his face looking at Arthus.

"Point taken sergeant, I better work on my people skills then." Arthus jokingly replied.

The three took anything they could find from the bodies of fallen enemies and readied themselves for what comes next. "We need to blow this ship up" said Walkers, "then we need to find a way to get the hell outta here".

"I need to find Will, sir." said Derek. "Why? Do you think he's still alive? What made you so sure that he's still kicking?", asked Walkers with innate curiosity.

"Just as everything fell dark, sir, I heard his voice... and I don't wanna leave my best friend behind, sir." answered Derek still hoping that his good friend is still alive.

"Right then, we have a heading, besides we Alliance marines don't leave anyone behind, if you heard it then I believe you", Walkers exerting confidence into his sergeant.

The three of them traveled into the ducts and began crawling their way towards their destination. As they neared an exit, they could hear the faint murmur of a man grunting from pain and the sound increased as they got nearer. Derek taking point, popped his head out of the vent to see who that was. There was Will laying on the ground along with other dead bodies, still grunting from the pain.

"Will!" cried Derek, relieved that his friend was still alive but worried at his condition. "Hey buddy", answered Will with a quiet painful voice. "Sorry I didn't dress up better before meeting up with you".

"You just stay quiet now, and don't move", Derek responded clearly fearful for his friend's condition. He ran to his leg and struggled to lift a heavy crate off of Will's right leg. Walkers and Arthus rushed to the scene out of the ducts to assist Derek.

"Hold on there, sergeant Szeto", said Walkers trying to comfort and reassure the injured sergeant that all will be fine. "Lieutenant Keith Walkers, sir, didn't expect that you'll be around, it's good to see another officer still with us." stated Will, amazed and glad to see that an officer and one with a great reputation in the Alliance was still ticking. The three lifted the heavy crate from Will's leg and Derek quickly went back to comforting his friend, lifting him off is back, cradling him. Arthus knelt down and started to scan Will's body for injuries with his omni-tool.

"So, who's the turian" Will asking Derek and clearly still in pain but with slight improvement.

"That's Arthus, turian shocktroops", answered Derek. "Pleasure to meet you sergeant" added Arthus in which in turn Will nodded his head slightly to the turian as a sign of politeness, recognition and respect.

"Why are you here?" curiously asked Will". The other two marines turned to Arthus with curiosity as well, never taking the time before to wonder what a turian is doing on this ship and how he ended up here.

"A few days ago, we were in a routine patrol, traveling from turian colony to colony, making sure that all is fine with our colonist. As we neared these coordinates, we picked up a heat signal on our scanners that was orbiting this planet and saw this Batarian dreadnought floating in orbit. Like you we decided to board them, only with us, we were more interested in investigating what these pirates were doing here". Arthus continued, "they fired on us the moment they saw our cruiser and we fired back at them, we figured that we can ... deny them of any weapons, munitions and equipment that they still had and arrest them for firing on a turian security cruiser for no good reason". "Like you we ended up on this ship getting ambushed and the Batarian bastards were ready for us, they ambushed us, they wanted us to be aboard the ship". Arthus suddenly stopping and shutting down his omni-tool, his face suddenly filled to grief and his voice conveyed a kind of sadness. " Those they killed were tossed out the airlock and sucked into the planet next to us, others that were still alive either became target practice for them during executions or they were beaten to death for their amusement, they locked me up because I was the biggest one of the lot". His voice got a little sadder, "They bought us to a window where we could see our cruiser, they forced us to watch as they destroyed our ship, I saw it slowly exploding from the inside, splitting apart and watched the pieces flow apart". Arthus now looking down, "my...my younger brother...was on that ship" Arthus now looking as if ready to weep, "and so were my friends".

The room fell silent and there was dead air in the atmosphere, the three marines understood the shocktroop's grief and also understood now why there were broken ship parts floating nearby. Arthus continued with his omni-tool and then coming to Will's right leg. "There we go, his leg is fracture not too serious but needs to be taken care of" said Arthus struggling to clear his grief away.

Arthus applied medigel to Will's leg and asked "can you stand up now?". Will slowly struggled to lift himself up while refusing the help of Derek, lifted himself up onto his feet. He looks a massive improvement from his previous state although he is still limping even though he could limp fast.

"Are you sure you're fine?" asked Derek with a concerned tone. "Relax man I'm fine now. By the way, thanks for coming for me" answered Will warmly lifting his fist up for a fist pound. "Anytime" answered Derek pounding Will's fist for friendship.

All of sudden a speaker came on and out came a Batarian voice, "Alliance marines, this is captain Jorgal, I represent and lead this band of pirates. Impressive humans, you put up a good fight for the sheer will of survival but your persistence tires me. Perhaps we can negotiate for something mutually beneficial to both of us, come to the captain's deck and we'll... have talk". The voice of Jorgal sounded sincere yet so insidious. The speakers crackled and then shut down.

"It's a trap, I can smell it" says the lieutenant.

"It doesn't matter" responded Arthus with fire in his eyes, "we kill that son of a bitch just the same" and cocked his pistol.

Will picked up his sniper rifle and his pistol, securing it to his armor "okay I'm ready to move".

Keith Walkers nodded his head,"alright then, move out".


End file.
